Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: A minimum-three week policy is putting a P.E.I. drive-in theatre out of business

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Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 07-09-2018, 05:55 PM:

A minimum-three week policy is putting a P.E.I. drive-in theatre out of business

quote:
The owner of a drive-in theatre in Prince Edward Island says a requirement that cinemas screen most new Disney releases for a minimum of three weeks is choking out small-town businesses.

Bob Boyle, owner of the Brackley Drive-In Theatre, said the standard has become a bigger problem since Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment and the Star Wars franchise, and he expects the issue to reach its breaking point now that the titan plans to acquire 21st Century Fox.

Boyle said that while Cineplex, Canada’s largest movie theatre company, can afford to take up their screens for weeks at a time, there isn’t enough demand to keep playing a film for three weeks straight in smaller communities, especially in a single-screen theatre.

“If we don’t have quality film on-screen week in and week out, we’re an empty parking lot,” he said. “Without people and without film … that’s what makes the magic happen.”

The Brackley Drive-In Theatre has been operating since the 1950s and has been in Boyle’s family for nearly 30 years.

Boyle said that drive-in theatres, especially in the Maritimes, only have a short window of profitability during the summer months, and they need to show a variety of films during that time to keep customers watching.

Disney also implemented another policy within the past couple of years that prevents theatres from showing double features of movies they haven’t screened before.

Boyle said this rule makes it even more difficult to come up with a good program, saying there’s “no point” in showing a months-old movie that the theatre has already screened.

“Disney is putting hurdle after hurdle in place,” he said, explaining that he has had no issues with Warner Brothers, Universal Studios, and other film companies. “No other studio does this.”

He added that not being able to watch the films they want in theatres may drive some customers to pirating films, furthering the decline of the already-endangered movie theatre industry.

Disney is putting hurdle after hurdle in place

Disney could not immediately be reached for comment, but a company spokeswoman told CTV Atlantic that each film is negotiated on an individual basis and that the company does not restrict all films to a three-week minimum.

In response, Boyle said he never claimed that Disney has this regulation for all of their films, noting that they have made exceptions in the past — although he reiterated that the rule applies to the “vast majority” of their new releases.

He said there’s no hard copy of the policy, but he understands that Disney could cut off its relationship with his theatre if he doesn’t play a movie for as long as the company tells him to.

Boyle recently took to his drive-in’s Facebook page to criticize the regulation, saying his theatre is no longer able to play “Incredibles 2” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp” this week because of the studio’s strict rules.

It's mind-boggling, it's disappointing, and we're really hoping for change

He asked his customers to push back against the movie giant, saying “the studio will not listen to us, but they should listen to you.”

In turn, dozens of passionate movie-goers responded by flooding the Canadian Walt Disney Studios Facebook page with comments supporting Boyle’s stance.

On a photo advertising “Incredibles 2,” a user commented to express their disappointment in not being able to see the film at Boyle’s theatre: “You are losing out on sharing your work with our community. And leaving a sour taste for your brand as well.”

Another criticized the three-week policy, saying: “This is NOT SUSTAINABLE for seasonal drive-ins. Guess I’ll wait for Netflix.”

Boyle said he was “humbled” by the support he’s gotten and he hopes the public outcry will drive the studio to change its regulations.

He added that other drive-in theatres throughout the Maritimes have voiced their concerns over the issue, and that this rule would apply to all theatres in North America — though the adverse effects would be mostly felt in smaller communities.

“It’s mind-boggling, it’s disappointing, and we’re really hoping for change,” said Boyle.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-09-2018, 10:47 PM:

Well, we only played Coco for 2 weeks, but Avengers Infinity War, Solo and Incredibles 2 were all 3-week movies.

We played the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean on the break for only 2 weeks. So it's definitely not a blanket policy.

Disney does seem to be shooting itself in the foot with a lot of smaller players. We play a lot of their films on the break but we'd play more of them if we could get two weeks.

My big dream is for the studios to wake up and let small theaters play their movies for ONE week on the break. I would gladly pay the higher rental fee and open something on the break almost every week. Instead we have to choke up the screen with one film for 3 weeks, and do "fair" business on the third week, while having to skip a film we could do stellar with. The most recent Deadpool is a great example...it came out one week ahead of Solo, so we skipped it. Could have played it for one week and done killer business. Instead we had to wait until Incredibles was done, and we are now playing Deadpool to mostly-empty houses.

I keep pitching this one-week concept to anybody who will listen at conventions, but to a person they've all told me that it's never likely to happen. "Screen count" is almost as important to these guys as grosses are. Maybe moreso after the first weekend is done.

Posted by Brent Barnhart (Member # 10321) on 07-10-2018, 09:07 AM:

I agree completely on shorter runs. Would make for a much better business model. If you’re a single screen, then you commit to one week. If you’re a twin, 2 weeks. For a triple or higher then you can grab those 3 week deals. I mean, in the big sceme of things, just how many single screen indoors and outdoors are there? What would barely make a difference in a negative way to some people would make a huge difference for the small theaters and their communities. (And in fact, the negative should be offset by the positive because you are now adding screens on the break that you otherwise would not have.)

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 07-10-2018, 12:04 PM:

It's my understanding that the film companies don't want to have too many small screens on the break because it drags down their per-screen average take for the first weekend, which is important in future negotiations for cable tv and whatnot.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-10-2018, 01:24 PM:

I wonder how many small screens would be willing to pay the high percentages. I know I would because we already do.... but I wonder how many MORE would?

If it was a relatively small number then it wouldn't make much difference to the overall average but I can see their argument if thousands of small venues would go for it.

You'd think they could just separate the small operators out of the overall calculations. In this age it should be easy to do that.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 07-10-2018, 01:37 PM:

The movie distributors obviously don't give a damn about small towns. And they're not living up to one of the sales pitches they gave about making theaters convert to digital projection: more flexible booking arrangements and greater variety of movies to play. I guess that's all bullshit.

Most movies don't have enough audience drawing strength to justify holding a small town movie theater screen exclusively for just a full week, never mind two or three. That's not just artsy fare either; plenty of mainstream studio movies fall into that category. Very few movies made these days have any repeat viewing potential; it's one of the reasons why home video sales have been in the toilet. It's just another factor why these movies play themselves out so fast.

I don't understand the motivation behind these types of restrictive booking arrangements. Aren't these studios currently obsessed with getting the biggest opening weekend gross possible? Aren't they wanting to make the most money they can in the fastest manner possible? If that's the case it would seem getting the movie booked onto every available screen possible would be the bigger priority. Forcing small town theaters to skip movies (or play them much later to mostly empty seats) would seem to get in the way of that motivation. It's a pretty contradictory booking strategy.

Movie theaters are arguably an important quality of life feature to small towns. They're not as vital as a public school or fire dept but they make a difference whether a town seems alive at all, especially after dark.

Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 07-10-2018, 01:49 PM:

Easy solution Mike,

Just turn your office into a very small VIP auditorium!

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-10-2018, 01:51 PM:

Sometimes it's justified - in fact, even if Incredibles 2 or Avengers Infinity were only booked for 2 weeks, we did well enough that Disney would have insisted on another week anyway.

Solo, however, would have been a great one-week title.

Our booker describes the situation as "if you want to play with the big boys, you have to play by the same rules" which I can sort of understand, but then we also don't get any of the perks they get, like promotional goodies, so it's not exactly an even field.

quote:
Easy solution Mike,

Just turn your office into a very small VIP auditorium!

Hey there you go....except a projector alone would take up the whole office!

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 07-10-2018, 02:07 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
I wonder how many small screens would be willing to pay the high percentages. I know I would because we already do.... but I wonder how many MORE would?

Disney will let me have one of their movies for a one-week booking anywhere from four to eight weeks after the initial release (depending on which movie it is), but I still pay the same percentage that I would have if I had it on opening day.

Posted by Dustin Grush (Member # 10438) on 07-10-2018, 11:44 PM:

My concern isn't so much with Disney's three week deals, It's what happens if everyone else starts to follow suit. If the remaining studios were to insist on 3 weeks for each first run, I think that all but a handful of single screens, and a large portion of two screen theatres will be out of business.

That would basically limit a theatre to 4 different movies for the entire summer, and killing much of its repeat customer base. The only hope for survival would be if you were the only game in your town or the next.

Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 07-11-2018, 10:30 PM:

If you have the land available, open a second very small screen and put those films there. Isn't that essentially what multiplexes do? The move the film over to a 45 seat screen.

Posted by Dave Bird (Member # 490) on 07-13-2018, 03:35 PM:

Brackley is a sweetheart of a drive-in (and if you like beaches, warm gulfstream water and golf, PEI is great too!). We pick and choose with Disney, Incredibles was definitely worth 3 weeks, but we passed on Ant-Man, and we'll likely never play Solo.

We're trying to get a 2nd screen done to combat even the usual "2 week" minimums. The big issue of course is that even small projectors still sit at $60k ($100k if you're using Canadian pesos) and so it's hard to just wedge something in for the sake of move-overs, it has to draw some as well. I can sympathize with the spirit of it, but it's not really that new of an issue. At our single screen, we tend to get cute with it, typically we'll play 3-week films starting before summer when we're weekends only, and by week 2 or 3 move it to second in the lineup.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 07-13-2018, 04:38 PM:

One of the other issues with Disney is their film rental winds up being outrageous if you aren't playing another Disney movie as the second feature. This is something else that makes it difficult to put together a good program. Especially in the third week. Fortunately in the case of Incredibles 2, Ant-Man and the Wasp opened the same weekend we were going to move Incredibles 2 from our Cinema to our drive-in. But we've wound up having to play Avengers: Infinity War for a total of 4 weeks in order to be able to play other movies.

As Disney continues to have the lion's share of good grossing titles, it only reinforces the issue.

Posted by Dave Bird (Member # 490) on 07-13-2018, 04:49 PM:

The ability to play double-features of course is a great help, but I think that second screen is going to be a necessity. Customers I think are going to be fine with something new 2 out of every 3 weeks, but one every 4 is tough. I'm still not sure what we would've done with Jurassic coming out a week after Incredibles. Incredibles sold out the first Saturday and was maybe 85% the second, but we'll take those "problems". As it was, we ran those two as a pair and had a good 3rd week, now Transylvania and Jurassic should do well.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 07-13-2018, 11:19 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
And they're not living up to one of the sales pitches they gave about making theaters convert to digital projection: more flexible booking arrangements and greater variety of movies to play. I guess that's all bullshit.

Maybe a little, but I think most of this is a function of assumptions, made by many independents during the rollout.

I remember hearing what you're talking about. "A hard drive is only a fraction of the cost of a 35mm print. They'll be handing those out to anyone who wants them". I also heard the studios caution that this wasn't in their plans, as print cost was only part of the voodoo that determines who gets prints and when. Unfortunately, this was soon forgotten by the exhibitors... until they got their machines installed and found things didn't change all that much. If anything, it got worse if you were on VPFs. It wasn't supposed to, but...

As time has passed and the exhib window has shortened, I'm seeing more first-run product at theatres & drive-ins that never used to run the stuff. Part of it might also be because a few distribs charge first-run rates whether you start on the break or try to wait it out. If you're gonna get hit anyway, might as well get in while the crowds are interested.

quote: Justin Hamaker
One of the other issues with Disney is their film rental winds up being outrageous if you aren't playing another Disney movie as the second feature.

That's usually true, but Disney is also known to deviate from that... if it benefits Disney.

A number of drive-ins up here are running Hotel Transylvania 3 with Incredibles 2... something that would have been unheard of before digital. Percentages are steep, but not beyond what we've been willing to pay in the past for a good draw.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 07-16-2018, 03:35 PM:

quote:
nd they're not living up to one of the sales pitches they gave about making theaters convert to digital projection: more flexible booking arrangements and greater variety of movies to play.

I have a hunch this will start to change as VPF deals start to run out. Our theatres are just about done with VPFs (like within weeks) and we've already seen some indication we will have an easier time getting product, especially from the smaller studios.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-16-2018, 06:57 PM:

Don't hold your breath. We were never on a VPF plan and the situation here is essentially the same as it was with film. Although I did hear from our booker one or two times that "since we weren't a VPF theater" we were getting a title that a VPF theater might not have gotten. But that wasn't very often at all.

Once in a while, if we don't play a movie on the break, we can get it in week 3 but usually they still want two weeks at that point, and by that time it's not worth 2 weeks anymore...so we have to wait until week 5 or so.

The real irritation is when a movie is a surprise smash, as happened with "American Sniper" and "The Revenant." They could have easily run off a bunch more hard drives and spread the movie fast and wide, but all the smaller towns had to wait until about week 6 with both of those titles. We still did well with both though.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 07-18-2018, 08:07 PM:

You know, Hollywood enjoys billions of dollars of tax breaks, which government officials of all parties usually grant without much hesitation, because Hollywood generates quite a lot of jobs.

So, since they're essentially benefiting from public money, maybe the government can step in and protect the small exhibitors from monopolistic malpractices like requesting exclusivity for extended periods for certain titles?

Posted by Dave Bird (Member # 490) on 07-20-2018, 06:36 AM:

It still baffles me a bit, coming from a retail background, how the studios can be so rigid in their standard booking practices, things like Mike says, not getting new markets in on surprise hits week 3 (week 2 even), 3 week minimums where it clearly doesn't fit. You never see Coca-Cola holding back a product that surprises them, and every retail outlet and then some sold those stupid "fidget spinners" which had zero purpose but were in demand just the same. In almost any other business, they make hay while the sun shines, wherever it happens to be shining.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 07-20-2018, 07:30 AM:

I only recently learned that some markets have an astonishingly high percentage of single screeners, as in the US, UK, Germany, France, etc. The multiplexes may still account for higher profits for the studios, but if the single screeners closed, that would lose quite some business for them, too. I don't understand why the studios are so stubborn here.

- Carsten

Posted by Dave Bird (Member # 490) on 07-20-2018, 08:07 AM:

Carsten, we still have studios request us to play films, single screen, outdoors when it suits them....that would be prime season (now) when we can, and sometimes do put 1,200-1,400 admissions through for a single showing (which they count TWICE on both ends of their double-feature, with accounting skills like that, they should get into the government racket!). It makes some sense to me, there might not be any actual auditoriums that seat that capacity anymore in this country.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 07-20-2018, 12:25 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
we also don't get any of the perks they get, like promotional goodies, so it's not exactly an even field.

Welcome to the club, Mike. We send 5-figured checks to some of those distributors, and we don't get treated any better than you.

I'm hoping we can change that when we put digital poster boards in the building... The printed stuff that's shipped to us is mostly junk.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 07-20-2018, 02:00 PM:

When I started in the industry in the mid 90's it was very common for studios to send promotional t-shirts and other goodies to the theatres. Now you have to jump through hoops to get anything, and often only for the sake of radio or other promotions. Goodies for theatre staff are almost unheard of today.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 07-20-2018, 02:34 PM:

When I first got the Real D setup (in 2011) I got boxes of t-shirts from Real D for almost every 3D movie.

Boy, did I have shirts.

And there were lots of happy customers who received a free t-shirt when they came to the show.

That only lasted a year or so, though.

I haven't had any swag for any movie for some years, now.